The parliament’s Health Committee will hold a meeting on Tuesday with the Ministry of Health, the Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry, the doctors and pharmacists syndicates, and foreign companies.

The goal of the meeting is to discuss the opinions of different parties concerned with pharmaceuticals on the medicine shortage and the scarcity of certain products that could be life-threatening, member of parliament Shadia Thabet said.

Thabet added that the committee will pose a long-term solution to the government, represented in the Ministry of Health, which is the establishment of a pharmaceutical factory for raw materials, and developing Holdipharma subsidiaries to increase its share in the market.

She explained that the share of pharmaceutical companies in the public sector declined from 70% to less than 10%, which threatens national security in terms of medicines.

Mohamed Al-Amari, head of the Health Committee, met with a group of pharmaceutical companies in the past week.

The government decided to provide $181m for purchasing 146 types of drugs that have no alternatives in the Egyptian market to resolve part of the shortage.

Mohammed Al-Abd, member of the Pharmacists Syndicate, said the meeting will discuss the drug shortage, provide medical solutions for expired medicines, and resolve disputes with pharmaceutical companies about Decision 499/2012 on pharmacists’ profit margins.

He mentioned that the syndicate’s inventory of all missing medicines in pharmacies is underway across 25 governorates. The inventory is scheduled to be handed over to the cabinet as soon as they complete it.